Five days of lifting per week. Usually 2-3 rounds of HIIT per week also. On top of that, I did do some calorie restriction. I monitor my intake pretty closely. I aimed for a 500 calorie daily deficit. At the peak of the cut, I consumed about 1900 calories per day.

follow? I have put on a lot of weight and am looking at dieting etc. Do you guys recommend any diet for this? Is fasting of any use?

Body needs to know what to expect - if you keep eating at random times, body will get confused and metabolic system fails to perform well. Eat regularly and in short intervals for the best outcomes - it keeps your body going. Else, body will start storing fat for times when you will go fasting.

But it probably doesnt work the way you think it does. There's nothing magic about it, the real magic happens with keto (under 20-30g carbs a day). Once you switch into keto your hunger basically vanishes and its easy to eat low amounts of calories with zero food cravings or hunger.

Once you are in keto and your body has adapted, IF makes sense purely because it makes your life easier. Keeping your eating contained in a 4-8 hour window solves problems like "I forgot to make lunch today, how do I find low carb food to eat?" and also makes it easier to avoid snacking and manage your protein/fat macros better.

Basically IF is just purely about convenience, it doesnt really help with weight loss as such. Keto is where the magic happens. IF without keto would suck, you'd just be hungry all the time and feel like crap whereas with IF+keto you stop thinking about food entirely and just eat a couple of meals a day during set hours.

Forget all the stupid fad diets and gimmicks. Eat healthy and exercise!

Yeah this doesnt work. People have been giving this advice for decades and yet the population keeps getting fatter. The vast majority of people who try 'eating healthy' fail to lose weight. The simple fact is that sticking to a diet is impossible for the vast majority of people. You can rant about lack of willpower all you like, but at some point you have to accept that the advice you are giving simply doesnt work in most cases.

Keto is hard if you don't make your own food. What do you do for lunch when you forget to cook?

Yeah I do intermittant fasting and its amazing.
But it probably doesnt work the way you think it does. There's nothing magic about it, the real magic happens with keto (under 20-30g carbs a day). Once you switch into keto your hunger basically vanishes and its easy to eat low amounts of calories with zero food cravings or hunger.
Once you are in keto and your body has adapted, IF makes sense purely because it makes your life easier. Keeping your eating contained in a 4-8 hour window solves problems like "I forgot to make lunch today, how do I find low carb food to eat?" and also makes it easier to avoid snacking and manage your protein/fat macros better.
Basically IF is just purely about convenience, it doesnt really help with weight loss as such. Keto is where the magic happens. IF without keto would suck, you'd just be hungry all the time and feel like crap whereas with IF+keto you stop thinking about food entirely and just eat a couple of meals a day during set hours.

Keto is hard if you don't make your own food. What do you do for lunch when you forget to cook?

Uh thats the whole point of IF. You eat from 6pm-midnight when you are at home, and dont need to worry about finding food outside those times.

Although keto without IF is perfectly fine, you just pack a lunch. And keto basically kills your hunger anyway so if you forget lunch one day then you can just skip it until you get home (this is one of the reasons why people who do keto tend to naturally fall into IF-esque eating patterns anyway - when you no longer have cravings/hunger then you just naturally start eating when its convenient rather than feeling that you 'must' eat at certain times)